Orders from Washington and careful staff work in Tokyo had begun to show results. Those who had doubted U.S. intentions toward Japan (see below) no longer had any excuse for doubting: the U.S. Government intended—as it always had intended—to subject Japan to severe retribution and a thorough occupation.
One piece of evidence was General Douglas Mac Arthur's plain-spoken statements to the U.S. press. Before he cleared the air, he had set the State and War Departments by the ears with an offhand announcement that he would soon need only 200,000 troops in Japan (he had previously estimated 500,000, then 400,000). State's...
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